A web app is basically a website that is designed to look like a traditional app. It can be accessed through a web browser on the phone, such as Safari on the iPhone or iPad, and does not require downloading or installation through the App Store. Apple has supported this type of application for years, but what is a web application? How is it different from the typical applications used on the iPhone and iPad?

What are web applications?

Web applications as Apple calls them, or Progressive Web Apps and abbreviated to PWAs as promoted by Google, but Apple prefers to call them web applications. Regardless, web applications in general are versatile applications developed using only web technologies, and the term PWAs is commonly used to describe these applications.

From a user's perspective, a PWA can be likened to a website that can be added to your device's home screen without having to download it from the App Store. Among the popular web applications that many people use are Google Maps, Starbucks, Tinder, Uber, and Instagram.

Interestingly, iOS was the first platform to support the idea of ​​PWAs. When the iPhone was first introduced, the initial apps were built using HTML5, allowing users to add them to their home screen manually for a full-screen, app-like experience. And at that time, the App Store didn't exist yet.

After the introduction of the App Store, Apple's support for web applications began to wane, while Google Chrome continued to improve related web technologies. And by 2018, all major web browsers, including Safari, have committed to supporting web applications. Since then, Apple has also continued to improve the web app experience, although it has not been advertised as much. Therefore, many people were surprised when Apple announced its plan to support notifications for web applications during WWDC 2022.

Advantages of web applications

Unlike “web apps,” which act as basic shortcuts or simple home screen bookmarks, PWAs can be pre-downloaded, work offline, and provide an app-like experience on the Apple Store and access to features like geolocation, camera, and more.

The size of the Starbucks web app is 233 KB, which is 99.84% smaller than the app store's 148 MB.

From a developer's perspective, choosing a Progressive Web App (PWA) can avoid potential difficulties a developer might have in getting their app accepted during Apple's review process.

for example…

Apple does not accept applications that review applications in the Apple Store, so the developer turned Othman To solve a problem that some people face, as they receive a lot of questions and inquiries about application requests from friends or family, because many want an application to do a specific thing, but they do not know what the name of the application is that does that, and searching in the application store rarely gives useful results, especially in Arabic.

So Othman developed Appollow, a platform for applications where users can easily search for applications in Arabic as well as share their favorite applications and discover free applications for a limited time, Othman says (I was inspired by the idea of ​​our application App-Aad).

But Othman, if he had developed the application and put it in the App Store, Apple would have rejected it absolutely, just as it refused to update our application. App- He returned. Therefore, the Appollow project is a website built with PWA technology, which adds the possibility of installing it as an application on the home screen, such as “Twitter and Starbucks.”

Othman is a genius developer, God willing... This is the site for his application that works with the technology we are talking about today...

https://www.appollow.net

Disadvantages of web applications

Native apps (developed with Apple's development kit) have better integration with iOS and provide a smoother user experience, for example, web apps can only store offline data and files totaling a maximum of 50MB. They can't access some hardware features, such as Bluetooth and a face or fingerprint, and they can't execute background code. Web apps currently do not have access to in-app payments and other Apple services, which are only available to native apps.

How to add a web app to your home screen

◉ Open Safari on the iPhone or iPad.

◉ Go to a site that offers web applications, you can go to a site appsco You will find many of them.

◉ Click on the share button.

◉ Scroll down the Posts window, then select Add to Home Screen.

◉ Name the web app, then tap Add.

The new web app will appear in the space on your device's home screen, and if you tap it and you're taken back to the standard website, exit Safari through the app switcher, then launch the web app again.

How to set up web application notifications on the iPhone

In the beta update for iOS 16.4 And iPadOS 16.4, Apple added a new feature that allows web apps added to the home screen to support notifications. Thus, these applications can request permission to receive notifications through a window that appears to you on the screen, just like other applications, and then you can agree to receive notifications from this application. With notifications allowed from this app, they will appear on the lock screen, in Notification Center, and on a paired Apple Watch.

◉ Open the web app you added to your home screen.

◉ Find the setting that turns on notifications and then enable it.

◉ When the permission prompt appears, tap Allow to allow the web app to send you notifications, just as if it were a typical app.

Once you do, you'll be able to control notifications and icon badges for the web app from within the Notifications section of the Settings app.

What do you think of web applications on the iPhone? Do you use any of them on your phone? Tell us in the comments.

Source:

macrumors

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